


destined to explode

by theoddoodisnude



Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers - All Fandoms
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-10
Updated: 2012-04-10
Packaged: 2017-11-03 10:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoddoodisnude/pseuds/theoddoodisnude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The comm's not on -- it can't possibly be, since Tony's out of power, there's no way it could work -- but Tony hears Steve screaming his name from somewhere, it's hard to tell from where, because Tony's falling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	destined to explode

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic in this fandom and my first fic posted here! Wohoo. It's... I don't know. 
> 
> The title is borrowed from Time-Bomb by All Time Low.

Tony has always lived his life fully -- he's tried everything at least once, gone outside his comfort zone on numerous occasions, taken dares, ridden on the highest highs and hit the rock bottom of the lowest lows. He has regrets, he's made plenty of mistakes, but he's also done a lot of good things and even if there are times when he hates himself, hates what he's done and what he's turned into -- a weapon, but a fighter, a hero, so he's not all bad, but he is what he is at all because he was kidnapped and is in a constant state of half-dying -- but on the whole, he has to admit that he's quite happy with his life. In the end, it's been okay and he's done equal measures good and bad, as humans are wont to do.

So when the suit is malfunctioning slightly and he's dangerously low on energy, he keeps his wits about him and thinks rationally. Numbers and probabilities and mortality charts roll back and forth and up and down in front of his eyes; the huge, violent, psychotic Doom bot they're fighting doesn't seem like it's about to give up anytime soon, Hulk is out of commission and Thor is still rushing here from the other side of the state, but it's not certain that he'll make in in time. Basically, the the numbers are telling him all the bad things he doesn't really want to know.

Just Cap, Widow, Hawkeye and Tony make an _awesome_ team, it's not that, it's just that they're mostly mortal, tough but distressingly destructable, ground-fighters. A robot of this size that carries what must be a ton's worth of explosives, has approximately four different "super attacks", is upredictable and _flies_ , on top of all that, is something that is very difficult for them to take down, especially since Tony is the only one who's currently air-borne.

The sun is setting and they're running out of time.

Tony lands on a rooftop and removes the face plate, only for a minute. It's summer and it's warm, the gentle breeze is such a stark contrast to the loud chaos below. He takes a deep breath and the face plate settles back over his face.

He starts to reroute the energy he has left and overrides every security code JARVIS is trying to stop him with.

Tony opens the comm, and says, "Cap, Widow, Hawkeye -- back away, I'm taking this big boy down now, he'll never even know what hit him."

There's something in his tone that must alarm Cap, because he even forgets about the whole code name-thing as he says, "Tony, whatever you're thinking of doing -- _don't_. Don't do anything stupid, that's an _order_ \--"

Tony shuts the sound of Steve's voice out and flies down to the Doom bot. All the energy he has left is rerouted to his chest and once he fires, he'll fall. Fall helplessly until he crashes, probably, and his suit will be pretty useless without any energy to fuel it, so there's a great risk he'll break his spine or his neck and possibly get landed on by the Doom bot, if he manages to take it down.

Deep breath.

Tony can't afford to think about that right now, because he's lived his life, _right_ , he's tried everything at least once and if he does this, he'll save Cap and Widow and Hawkeye and all the people whom the Doom bot is probably planning to destroy. If he dies now -- because the numbers keep going up, seventy five percent risk, eighty three percent, the numbers are creeping up, up, up -- he'll know that he's lived properly and that he's saving people. And that's what counts.

So Tony fires, blasts out all the repulsor energy directly from the arc reactor -- he can feel that something inside his chest just got fried, he feels the effect of the arc reactor losing power immediately, feels it pump slower, dear god, he's stuck in the _middle of a moment_ and it hurts already -- and it takes so _long_ , somehow, before he's done and then he falls.

The comm's not on -- it can't possibly be, since Tony's out of power, there's no way it could work -- but Tony hears Steve screaming his name from somewhere, it's hard to tell from where because Tony's _falling_. He's falling, falling, falling -- but hey, the Doom bot seems to be, too, strange thing to take notice of in the middle of a _fall_ \-- and he keeps _falling, falling, falling--_

Until suddenly he's _not_ \--

\-- he's landed _hard_ on something and it punches the air right out his lungs and the reactor is working so hard to keep going, but it's not and Tony's feeling very weak and shaky and a little bit like the suit's melted onto his skin, which, hey, should hurt more, shouldn't it, he probably fried more than just that something in his chest.

Tony sees sunshine hair and a flicker of red and realises that _Thor made it, he's here_ , and Tony knew there was a reason Thor's always been his favourite. Then Tony realises that, ouch, fuck, his body, his _chest_ \--

Suddenly he's lying on the ground with his head in Cap's lap -- hey, that rhymes, sort of, except _cap's lap_ sounds a bit like _cat slap_ , which, wait what, screw that, Tony's witty even when he's dying, but he knew that already -- and Cap's talking.

"Hey, hey, Tony, stay with me, okay? There's an ambulance on the way and Natasha is calling Pepper," Steve's voice is shaking and his hands are trembling and Tony wishes he could remove the face plate, but he can't, the whole no-energy thing is stopping him. "Because you're you and you have a plan for this, you must have, so we're calling Pepper and she's going to help, okay."

Steve's rambling and it's so _unlike_ him. Tony tells himself that he's lived his life right, damn it, he's tried everything at least once, he's not going to die feeling _guilty_ and filled with _regret_. But Cap sounds so heart-broken, it's heart-breaking, and Tony really wishes he had a functioning heart.

"Stay with me, Tony," Steve repeats. He keeps staring at the blue triangle, where the reactor glows weakly and flickers. "God, the light just-- _Clint_! When are they here?" he switches back to soldier-mode, but his voice is still shaky. "The light from the reactor is getting dimmer. There's-- not much time left."

Steve's right and everyone knows it, especially Tony, _because his heart is slowing down_ and the _reactor isn't doing it's job_ , which makes it very difficult, all of it, and he still can't quite breathe.

Tony hears sirens in the distance, but they don't really matter, because he counted on not-surviving. Sure, Thor screwed up the percentage on the mortality chart, but the numbers are still not in Tony's favour.

"Stay with me, Tony. They're on their way, _stay_ right here, look at me. Look at me. You're fine, you're going to be fine, I love you, they're _almost_ here."

Tony has lived his life fully, he's tried everything at least once, he's even been in love, okay, he's been in love and he is in love and his only regret will be Steve, because this means that Steve will lose another person and Tony hates the look Steve gets on his face when he looks back in time and remebers. Steve's pain is like a physical hurt in _Tony_ , which makes no sense, so Tony usually tries to make Steve smile, and there's another regret -- he won't be able to make Steve smile -- but hey, Tony is not a super soldier or a god or anything beyond just mortal. He's very, very mortal.

Tony feels unconsciousness tugging at his mind, even as Steve desperately tries to keep him grounded. It's not working, Tony can't stay, he can't _help it_.

He croaks, "I love you," and the world fades away.


End file.
